The Fair Trade Certification Process

For years, I’ve been trying to find a fair trade certifying agency that knows how to handle a company partly based in the U.S., partly based in India, and without a central manufacturing center. As a true “cottage” industry, all of the work of Indigo Handloom is done in the homes of weavers—this, understandably, makes it harder for certification agencies to evaluate whether or not our manufacturing processes align with their regulations. Thus, although there are a large amount of agencies out there from which to receive certification, none have been a good fit for my company.

It’s not just the idiosyncrasies of Indigo Handloom that have slowed down this process: while there has been incredible movement towards fair trade certification in everything from food, to cotton, to wine, and even to gold, my industry has mostly relied on standards proscribed by what I’ll loosely call “the ethical clothing movement,” which considers the social and environmental factors involved with creating clothing (the treatment of workers, disposal of waste water, chemical residue from dyes and washes, etc.). A great place to start, yes, but nothing as all-encompassing and regulated as fair trade.


Just when I was about to embark on this quest yet again, I got a call from Heather Franzese, Senior Category Manager for Apparel and Linens at Fair Trade USA, an organization based in Oakland, California. At the request of one of our private label clients, she was headed to my village in India to look at the way our production was managed. Heather’s not only working on a pilot program for Fair Trade Certification for apparel—check it out at http://www.fairtradecertified.org/certification/producers/apparel-linens—she’s also focusing on another project that uses mobile phones to promote more stringent social standards and community development. This new program has already been implemented in Peru with the help of an organization called World Of Good. You can read the case study here: http://www.worldofgood.org/our-work/laborlink/.


Fast-forward to last week: Heather just came back from visiting my village, and we are going to meet in October to discuss what’s next in the process of getting Indigo Handloom fair trade certified! While I wasn’t able to be there during her visit, I heard from Heather that our managers did a great job showing her around. When we spoke recently, she said she was “ecstatic” about what she saw there. One thing I’ve always told people—after spending a day in the villages seeing how weavers work, you can understand why they would rather continue receiving a fair wage as a weaver, as opposed to moving to the city to look for a manual labor job. Most weavers have little or no education, but they do have an amazing skill that keeps them out of poverty—provided they are given enough work.

I’m so looking forward to working with Heather and Fair Trade USA, and I’ll definitely let everyone know when we’re certified! Stay tuned.

Look for me on Facebook at Indigo Handloom/Smita Paul Design and on Twitter @smitapaul.